Affordable Care Act a humane solution to insurance problem

Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThe U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

What’s all the fuss about the health insurance mandate? We have a mandate: Simple human decency wouldn’t allow us to leave those in medical need without any care.

By that standard, those of us who have insurance have been mandated all along to pay for those without. At this point, the argument of how it is paid is simply a matter of semantics. The reality is the people who are supposedly uninsured have simply figured out that they don’t have to pay for it.

The Affordable Care Act addresses this reality in a very humane way, with all its subsidies for all those who truly can’t afford it. Justice Antonin Scalia’s statement, “Well, don’t obligate yourself to that,” meaning health care, is cold and ruthless, and also — thankfully — unrealistic. Decent people will never allow his Gordon Gekko mentality to leave those in need by the side of the road.